‘The First Purge’ Trailer Teases the Violent Origin Story

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Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures have released the first official trailer for The First Purge. This is the fourth film in the popular horror franchise, which began in 2013 with filmmaker James DeMonaco’s twist on a home invasion thriller: in the world of The Purge, one night a year in America all crime is legal, including murder. This premise was twisted further in the next two films, but now The Purge 4 serves as a prequel, showing us how this all began.

Gerald McMurray, the director behind last year’s Burning Sands and associate producer on Fruitvale Station, steps into the director’s chair this time around, marking the first time DeMonaco has vacated that seat. He still wrote the script for this prequel, which boasts a fresh ensemble cast that includes Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez and Marisa Tomei.

It’s clear pretty early that this prequel has a mostly African-American cast, which already sets it apart from the other three Purge movies. It’ll be interesting to see if the film delves into racial politics at all, since some of the imagery evokes the Black Lives Matter movement, but it also appears that DeMonaco has developed a pretty politically-minded origin story for the Purge regardless, with the U.S. government sending in soldiers disguised as citizens to carry out crime during this inaugural event.

Check out the First Purge trailer below along with some debut images. The First Purge opens in theaters on July 4th.